


holy place

by sourpastels



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst, How Do I Tag, Jinyoung is Minhyun's son, Love at First Sight, M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Single Dad!Minhyun, rating is for like...implied sexual content nothing explicit, this is basically minhyun and sungwoon's wedding and the story of how they got there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-21
Updated: 2018-03-21
Packaged: 2019-04-05 13:52:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14045646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourpastels/pseuds/sourpastels
Summary: “Sungwoon, when I first met you I never thought we’d be standing here today. From the moment I laid eyes on you under those dim bar lights in the fog of the smoke machine I thought you were the closest thing to perfect I’d ever seen. But I was a coward— I was a coward, but you changed that, you changed me for the better. The second time we met, I thought it was the cruelest of coincidences, but it turned out to be fate.”





	holy place

**Author's Note:**

> My friend wanted a hwangcloud wedding fic and i tried to provide
> 
> title from alone with me by vance joy, i feel like the whole song fits the fic quite well if you want to listen to it

Oh god, Minhyun is going to die.

He tries to keep his cool and calm demeanour, he really does. The entire congregation is watching him, including his parents and the priest and god himself if he’s out there and keeping an eye on the mere mortals getting married in his churches.

That is if he, the mere mortal getting married, doesn’t die of nerves first.

He takes a subtle, deep breath. Pre-wedding jitters happen to everyone— he can do this. He’s been planning for this day for _years_ now. He’s put his soul into making sure this is the most perfect day possible for both of them.

The song they’d chosen plays out from the overhead speakers— it feels like a hymn from the heavens, but he’s not sure if it’s one of salvation or damnation. The doors open. Minhyun knows he’s not supposed to look, traditionally speaking, but he’s nervous and _excited_ and _fuck tradition._

A man walks into the room, illuminated by the stain glass windows behind him, and Minhyun really thinks he might die now because _that man is going to be his husband._

Ha Sungwoon is walking down the aisle, illuminated by stain glass, looking more godly in his deep purple suit than the being this place was built for ever could.

How did Minhyun get so lucky?

 

_Minhyun doesn’t drink. Minhyun doesn’t dance…_

_Minhyun is in the middle of the crowded dance floor with a man’s hands on his hips and a drink of something in his hand._

_He’s not drunk. This is his first drink and he’s barely had a few sips. He didn’t even really want it, but when the man sitting next to him at the bar had said ‘and whatever he’s having’ with a sly, shining smile in Minhyun’s direction he just felt rude turning it down._

_When the man had invited him onto the dance floor he hadn’t felt rude at the idea of turning it down, he just hadn’t wanted to._

_It’s crowded— a lot more crowded than Minhyun is used to. Swaying, sweating bodies jostle into him at every small movement. He’s probably had three drinks spilt on him and he can’t hear anything but the thumping baseline, though when the man grips tighter on his hips he thinks that may just be his heart._

_“So, did you come here with anyone?” The man whispers into his ear— well, yells, but in the cacophony around them it’s as private as the most hushed whisper._

_“My friends,” Minhyun replies. He has no idea where Minki and Jonghyun have run off to though. They’d probably call him up tomorrow to regale him with their latest drunk adventure while he moans that they left him alone at the bar._

_“Are you leaving here with anyone?” The man whispers again. It’s different though, not just a whisper, more like a promise._

_Minhyun doesn’t normally do this, he really doesn’t, but he swallows and harshly whispers back “Yeah, you.”_

_The man grins, grabs him by the wrist and starts pulling him off the dancefloor._

_Outside, Minhyun is still sober, but the night air and the man’s burning touch against his wrist and his smile in the street lights all come together to make Minhyun feel more drunk than he thinks he ever has._

_“Hey, what’s your name?” Minhyun finally, finally asks as they wait for the next cab to pull up._

_“Sungwoon,” he says, but it gets lost somewhere in the night and between their lips as he brings Minhyun into a kiss._

_It feels like a blessing._

_Sungwoon blesses Minhyun again and again in the cab, leaving Minhyun breathless as Sungwoon grins against his lips and the driver pretends not to notice them._

_He doesn’t want to admit that he paid absolutely no attention to where Sungwoon told the cab to head or the roads they followed, but when the car stops he has no idea where they are. It’s a normal street, with normal apartment blocks, and right now that’s good enough._

_They go up to Sungwoon’s apartment a tangle of limbs, connected by their lips against each other and hands fisted in clothing._

_Sungwoon opens the door with his lips against Minhyun’s neck and pulls him to the bedroom with his hands under his shirt._

_That night Sungwoon kisses blessings onto Minhyun’s skin, whispers prayers into his neck, makes the tangled sheets somewhere divine and makes Minhyun finally understand why so many people worship._

_But when it’s all over, he leaves before Sungwoon wakes up._

 

Sungwoon whispers a ‘hey’ to him when he reaches him at the end of the aisle. His smile is blinding, brighter than any sun, and Minhyun’s worries melt away.

He’s the luckiest man in the world, because the best man in the world is smiling at him right now.

The officiant lets out a small cough to draw in the attention of both the guests and the couple themselves. They turn to face him but Minhyun entangles his hand with Sungwoons. If he can’t see him then he still wants to be connected to him somehow— to remember that this is real and actually happening and Sungwoon is here, doing this with him.

“Friends, we have joined here today to share with Hwang Minhyun and Ha Sungwoon an important moment in their lives. In their time together, they have seen their love and understanding of each other grow and blossom and...oh my god who wrote this?”

“Jaehwan,” Sungwoon hisses. “Can you please not be so...you…at my wedding!”

Minhyun can’t help but laugh. Why did they agree to let Jaehwan be their minister? He’d gotten drunk one night and gotten ordained for the hell of it, then immediately taken the minister position for their wedding without asking or being offered.

“Continue the vows, please, I’d like to be married sometime this year,” Sungwoon tells him with a smile that’s practically dripping with murderous intent.

Jaehwan sighs but continues, almost nervous under Sungwoon’s glare.

“They have seen their love and understanding of each other grow and blossom and now they have decided to live out the rest of their lives as one. Now, I believe the couple has written their own vows.”

Minhyun gulps. It’s his turn to read his vows first. He turns to Sungwoon, not letting go of his hands, so they’re facing each other again. His husband to be has no idea what he’s about to say— they hadn’t even peeked at each other's vows, not even when Minhyun had poked and prodded Taehyun and Woojin for some hint in the height of his vow-writing breakdown.

He just hopes that what he wrote is enough. He bled his soul onto those pages, filled them with the years of heartache, dotted the I’s with the heart-bursting love and ended every sentence with each tear he’s ever shed.

He hopes it’s enough, but it’s just too much to ask to ever put everything he feels for this man and everything they’ve been through together into something as impermanent and immutable as words.

“Sungwoon, when I first met you I never thought we’d be standing here today. From the moment I laid eyes on you under those dim bar lights in the fog of the smoke machine I thought you were the closest thing to perfect I’d ever seen. But I was a coward— I was a coward, but you changed that, you changed me for the better. The second time we met, I thought it was the cruelest of coincidences, but it turned out to be fate.”

 

_Minhyun fiddles with his tie in the elevator. This is the third new job he’s started in as many years but the pressure to make a good impression never gets easier. Really, he doubts anyone will even notice him, he’s just another face in the sea of suits and smart haircuts manning the computers. He’s a speck of dust in the monolith of a company, working out tax returns and wages with little acknowledgment, but he still wants to look his best._

_He can’t lose another job._

_The elevator dings and the doors open to an office. It’s the same as the thousands like it all over the world— white walls, grey carpet, three wall cubicle after three wall cubicle. At this point, the monotony of his surroundings is a comfort._

_He gives his name at the reception desk and a man shows up to give him a tour that’s little more than showing him to his cubicle and setting him to work._

_The work itself is easy. He crunches the numbers and fills out the forms one after another. He would almost find it relaxing if it wasn’t for the computer freezing up every twenty minutes or so. When he realises it’s not going to get itself together any time soon he calls the I.T department. It’s almost embarrassing to do so on his first day but at least he’s familiar enough with the system to not bother his superiors about it first._

_“Hello, this is the I.T department. How can I help you?”_

_Minhyun’s body has a visceral reaction to the voice. His stomach tightens and his blood hums under his skin, flushing it pink, but despite all of that he can’t place why it’s familiar._

_“I’m having a problem with my computer. It keeps freezing,” he says, ignoring the discomfiting, all-encompassing reaction._

_"Hmm, I’ll come up and look at it.” They hang up before Minhyun can say anything more._

_He waits, twiddling his thumbs, trying to ignore the strange anxiety overtaking his mind. This is nothing to logically be nervous about._

_His eyes are trained on the door but he’s still surprised when someone comes walking through. In a sudden rush he’s hit by the image of a smile under streetlights, the sting of a bite on his collarbone, the sound of a broken “f-fuck” that was more beautiful than a thousand angels singing._

_Sungwoon, his brain supplies, before shutting down._

_When Sungwoon is in front of him he says “Hello, you called about—“ only to choke when he looks up from his phone._

_“Minhyun?”_

_Minhyun is surprised he remembers even though the night is etched in gold in his own memory._

_What the hell is he supposed to say now. What is he supposed to do. His body tells him to run but he can’t, he needs this job. He’s an adult, he can handle running into a one night stand._

_“Hi,” It sounds weak to his own ears, but he counts it as a win nonetheless._

_“Hi.” Sungwoon looks struck, but he snaps himself out of it and gestures for Minhyun to move so he can get to the computer. He does so and for a while there’s a blanket of silence thick enough to drown a god._

_“You know, I was pretty disappointed when I woke up and you were just gone, didn’t even leave a number.” Sungwoon is not looking at him. He is knelt on the floor fiddling with some wires and Minhyun is watching the back of his head from his wheeled chair pushed back against the next cubicle wall. He wonders if Sungwoon waited for this specific moment to talk for a reason, if it was easier when he didn’t have to look at Minhyun._

_“What did you expect from a one-night stand?” Minhyun internally winces at how cold that sounds, but it’s out there now._

_To Sungwoon’s credit and Minhyun’s surprise, the other man just laughs._

_“I don’t know what I’m supposed to expect from a one-night stand, to be honest. It’s not something I do a lot.”_

_That surprises Minhyun. Sungwoon has been so smooth, so confident, he’d bought him a drink with ease and licked down his abdomen with a smile. When Minhyun left that night, he comforted himself with the fact that to Sungwoon this was probably just another notch in his bedpost, another pretty face granted the honour of his bed for the night._

_“Then why did you? With me?” Minhyun shouldn’t ask. He should quickly set Sungwoon off the course of this conversation and make it clear that whatever happened between them was meaningless, but it comes out anyway._

_Sungwoon turns to look at him. “Because I got one look at you and I think I fell in love.”_

_He says it like it’s easy, like it’s nothing, like those words don’t grab Minhyun by the heart and tear it out to be weighed for judgement._

_“Get coffee with me?” Sungwoon continues._

_Minhyun wonders if this is real. Surely this is a vision, something divine his brain had cooked up to battle his loneliness and the longing for a man he barely knew._

_But it isn’t._

_Yet Minhyun still can’t give into what he wants. You can bite the apple but after a lifetime of temptation and that one crisp bite, it all comes tumbling down in the end._

_“No.”_

_Sungwoon’s face falls._

_Minhyun’s heart breaks._

 

“You never gave up on me. You never gave up on us, even when I was too scared and blind to see it. You always knew we were made for eachother— one soul in two bodies that Zeus separated eons ago, always finding our way back to each other. I have so many things to be grateful to you for, and that’s just the first. If I have ever believed in a higher power it was the moment I realised you were going to stick by me like a guardian angel. They say marriage is for better or for worse, but we don’t need marriage to know that because you have always stuck by me no matter what life threw at us. Your soul sings me to sleep at night and your lips give me new life every morning.”

Minhyun’s voice is wobbling, struggling with the weight of these heavy truths on his tongue. His eyes never leave Sungwoon’s though. He watches emotions flicker through Sungwoon’s eyes and tears brim at the corners. Love, he realises, is life’s greatest miracle. Ha Sungwoon is a miracle. You can try and try but you can’t describe a miracle in words, you know it when you experience it, and that’s it, but Minhyun takes a small breath and continues to try.

“Marrying you is something I once never thought would happen, but it’s also one of the best things to ever happen to me. I’m so grateful for the years we have spent together until now, and I’m so grateful that you have agreed to spend the rest of your life with me. I love you, Sungwoon.”

A tear drips down Sungwoon’s cheek, looking like golden ichor in the church’s soft light.

Tradition dictates that they can’t kiss yet, but as Minhyun watches that tear gracefully drop onto Sungwoon’s lips he wants nothing more than to kiss it away. He restrains himself, feeling the eyes of the congregation watching his every move, a room of people who just watched him pour his heart out. They’ve seen enough. Instead, he squeezes Sungwoon’s hand in a show of reassurance and a promise of what’s to come.

It’s Sungwoon’s turn to recite his vows now. He waits with bated breath to hear the words he’s been wondering about for so long finally spill from his fiancé’s lips.

“I thought love at first sight was just a myth until I met you. Then I realised it was real, and terrifying, and everything I’ve ever wanted. This isn’t a myth, and I doubt we will ever be a legend. They won’t tell stories of us. We didn’t send a country to war over our love or walk into hell to find each other’s souls. They don’t tell stories about people meeting in bars and falling in love over burnt home cooked dinners and living in a two bedroom apartment with just enough room to move around. But myths and legends are about heroes, and you’re mine.”

Minhyun hadn’t been sure if he’d cry or not— he’d never gotten married before, how was he supposed to know? He finds his answer when he feels the first tear forming in his eye the second Sungwoon refers to him as ‘his hero’. Once upon a time, he hadn’t thought that Sungwoon would even want to know him, but now he’s right there saying words Minhyun never thought he would hear.

 

_The job isn’t bad— tedious, sure, but not bad. The work is simple enough, his hours aren’t bad, his coworkers don’t try to get to know him. Well, most of them don’t, there’s a certain group who can’t seem to leave him alone._

_"You coming to lunch?” Daniel asks him, leaning over one side of the cubicle wall._

_“Don’t I always?” Minhyun sighs._

_It had started like this— he’d walked into the cafeteria, intent on getting a salad and maybe some tea and taking it back to his desk to work through lunch._

_The plan was ruined when he was heading out of the cafeteria, salad in hand, and an unfamiliar voice had stopped him with a ‘Hey.’_

_He’d turned, more politeness than anything, and been met with a table of guys, some of whom were giving him an appraising stare and some who looked like they were pretending not to notice the thoroughly weird situation going._

_“You’re Sungwoon’s...friend...right?” The same man who called his attention (Minhyun had found out a few moments later his name was Jaehwan) had said. The salacious way he’d said ‘friend’ showed he knew that whatever he and Sungwoon were (nothing) they weren’t exactly friends._

_“We’ve met,” Minhyun said carefully._

_“Wonderful!” another man (Minhyun finds out his name is Jisung) “Come sit.” He pats the space on the bench next to him._

_“Uhhh...I was actually going to just go get some work done.” The last way he wanted to spend his lunch was with the friends of his one-night stand. He doesn’t remember exactly how they got him to sit down after all, or to keep coming back, but they’re persuasive and he’s not as good at being alone as he likes to think._

_He follows Daniel to their usual table and sits in his usual seat. It feels strange to call it usual, it’s not something he’d done at any of his past jobs, but it’s becoming a habit now. It’s not so bad, really, he found out quickly they were pretty nice people once they’d stopped drilling him for gossip that first day._

_There’s really only one problem._

_“Hey,” Sungwoon says, arriving at the table just a few moments later than Minhyun himself._

_The problem is that, logically, Sungwoon hangs out with Sungwoon’s friends._

_That first day, he’d given Minhyun a wide stare when he first found him at their table. He’d quickly adjusted though, after a few dirty looks and hushed whispers (whispers, angrier than the ones he’d breathed into Minhyun’s skin that night, but familiar enough to send a flush to his cheeks he hopes the others had missed) with his friends._

_He’d tried to talk to Minhyun, at first, but Minhyun had shut him down every time, and he’d eventually given up. Now, they talked to everyone else without ever looking at each other (Minhyun looks, his traitorous eyes trail to Sungwoon’s face and fall on his features he remembered with reverence, but Sungwoon never notices) or talking to each other. It’s not as awkward as it sounds._

_(It kind of is, at least to Minhyun, even if no one else seems to feel it.)_

_Everything is going as usual until Minhyun feels his phone ringing in his pocket. Nobody ever calls him. He fishes it out, tuning out the light hum of conversation at the table. The number is familiar enough, though it sends a jolt of panic through him that they’re calling._

_“Hello?” He answers. The table’s conversation simmers down around him. He should probably walk away instead of taking this call in front of them, but he doesn’t think about it, he’s focused on finding out why he’s getting the call in the first place._

_“Mr. Hwang?” The voice on the other end of the call asks him._

_“Yes, that’s me.”_

_“I’m afraid that Jinyoung seems to be feeling rather unwell. He threw up today. He’s waiting for you to come pick him up if you can?”_

_“Uh, yes, I’ll be right there. Thank you,” He says before hanging up._

_“I have to go,” Minhyun says, not to anyone in particular. He quickly throws on his jacket. He’s left his briefcase in his cubicle but he doesn’t even consider running up to get it. “Wait, fuck, when’s the next bus?” He asks._

_“Uh.” Jisung checks his watch. “In about twenty minutes.”_

_Minhyun crumples back onto his seat, head in his hands._

_“Hey, what’s wrong?” Daniel asks him._

_Minhyun takes a deep, ragged breath. “It’s my son, he’s sick. I need to pick him up from school.”_

_“I’ll drive you,” a voice says. He knows that voice, but somehow he’s still shocked when he looks up and finds Sungwoon staring at him._

_Minhyun tries to read his expression, in the moment, but then Sungwoon is looking away and fishing for his car keys in his pocket before Minhyun can even think anything past ‘Wow, he’s beautiful.’_

_“Come on,” Sungwoon says, getting to his feet._

_And well, what choice does Minhyun have? It barely occurs to him he’s going to be stuck in a car with a man he’s never had a real conversation with yet can’t stop thinking about. In any other situation, he’d try to find a way out of it, like he always finds a way out of taking to Sungwoon, but this is about his son. His son needs him, that’s all that matters to him right now._

_He gives Sungwoon the name of the school on autopilot and lets him drive. Neither of them talk— Minhyun is too busy worrying and Sungwoon keeps his eyes fixed on the road. He’s glad that he doesn’t even feel the awkward air that inevitably should be there. They pull up at the school and Minhyun immediately goes to get out of the car._

_“Uh, thanks for the ride. I’ll pay you back for the gas.” He remembers to be polite. “I’ll see you at work, I guess.”_

_“What?” Sungwoon blinks then shakes his head. “No, I’m driving you back home,” He says like it should be obvious._

_Then, he’s getting out of the driver’s side door and walking towards the school gates before Minhyun even has his door open. He wants to tell Sungwoon that he’s being ridiculous, that he’s done enough, that Minhyun can handle it just fine from here thanks, but that would take up time he doesn’t feel as if he has. Instead, he gets out and follows Sungwoon, vowing to sort this out once he’s made sure Jinyoung is okay._

_Jinyoung is sat right where they said he’d be. He’s on a little plastic chair, head bent over a cardboard bowl. He looks so small— he is, he’s five, but right now he looks even smaller than usual. Minhyun rushes to him immediately._

_“Hey, how are you feeling?” Minhyun asks softly._

_Jinyoung looks up at him with much less energy than usual. Minhyun reaches out to feel his forehead— it’s burning._

_“I don’t feel so good,” Jinyoung mumbles. “I threw up. It was pink.”_

_Minhyun huffs a light laugh even though he’s still concerned. “I know you don’t feel well, baby. But we’ll get you home and you’ll feel a lot better, okay?”_

_Jinyoung nods and gets to his feet. Minhyun makes sure he has his bag and his coat and then they head towards the door. Sungwoon holds it open for them, and that’s when Jinyoung notices him. He’s a shy kid, so his response is to hide behind Minhyun’s leg and whisper “Dada, who’s that?”_

_Minhyun opens his mouth to reply, but before he can even think of how to explain it Sungwoon starts talking with a wide smile._

_“Hi, I’m Sungwoon, I’m your dad’s friend.” Minhyun raises his eyebrow but doesn’t say anything to that. Whatever they are, he doesn’t think friends is the right word._

_“Sungwoon’s gonna drive us home. Is that okay, sweetie?” Minhyun asks him._

_Jinyoung seems hesitant, but he nods_

_Jinyoung manages not to throw up all over Sungwoon’s seats and actually seems to be looking a little better by the time they’re pulling into the drive. Sungwoon is good with kids in a way that Minhyun hadn’t really expected. He talks to Jinyoung in an easy kind of way that makes Minhyun’s usually shy son come out of his shell and forget about how unwell he feels by engaging him in conversations about art and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the two passions in his five year old life._

_When they get out of the car, Jinyoung is pouting for Sungwoon not to go._

_“Please, can he stay just for a little bit?”_

_Minhyun sighs internally. He’s been trying to keep Sungwoon at arm's length all this time, but he crashes that down in seconds._

_“You should get some sleepy, Jinyoung. It will make you feel better.” Minhyun tries._

_“Can he stay just until I fall asleep? Pretty, pretty please?”_

_Minhyun can’t bring himself to say no._

_“If Sungwoon wants to, then sure.”_

_Sungwoon gives him a wide smile and starts heading to the front door. “I’d love to.”_

_Jinyoung shows Sungwoon some of his toys before immediately passing out on the sofa. Minhyun walks Sungwoon back outside._

_“Hey,” he says before Sungwoon walks away “Thank you for all this, really.”_

_“It was no problem, really. I hope Jinyoung feels better soon. He’s a great kid.”_

_Minhyun has heard ‘he’s a good kid’ a lot. He has never heard it like this. It’s normally meaningless, an empty promise people tell him before they walk away. Sungwoon sounds like he means it._

_It floors Minhyun. Looking at Sungwoon now, his heart beats rapidly in his chest, his stomach flutters, his hands want to reach out and touch and never let him go._

_“I’ll see you at work tomorrow,” is what he says instead._

 

“Marrying you will make me so happy. Really, this is the happiest day of my life, the day I get to join your family and you join mine.”

Minhyun can barely see Jaehwan through his tears, it’s as if he’s looking through a stained glass window, but he can hear him just fine.

“Minhyun, do you take Sungwoon to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

This is the moment. Right now, Minhyun holds so much power, both their futures hanging on the two words behind his lips, ready to change their lives forever. But at the same time, he feels so insignificant. In this hundreds year old church, a place with a history so much longer than their own, he and Sungwoon’s love is just a speck in the grand, cosmic scheme.

That doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter if they’d go down in history or if no one would even know their names in eighty years. It doesn’t matter if the heavens will fall silent for this moment.

This is still the most important thing that’s ever happened.

“I do,” Minhyun says, voice breathy but so metaphorically loud it deafens him.

“Sungwoon, do you take Minhyun to be your lawfully wedded husband?”

Minhyun’s hearing comes back to him then, because he wouldn’t miss this moment for the world.

“I do.”

“HELL YEAH!” Jaehwan shouts, clapping once. “You may now kiss each other!”

Minhyun has kissed Sungwoon many times over the past few years. Each kiss has been an incredible, life-changing moment but this moment, this kiss, is special.

It’s everything Minhyun has ever wanted.

The reception is everything Minhyun had expected it to be. Beautiful, with the evening light in the elegant yet slightly wild gardens, lively, with the wooden tables filled with their guests, chaotic, with a borderline-drunk Daniel deciding to make a speech even though that had definitely not been planned.

“Minhyun and Sungwoon’s relationship is possibly the most beautiful one I have ever seen. The way they adore each other is something magical I’m grateful to witness. I’ve known them since before they fell in love— I don’t know exactly when they fell in love, but I know it was a moment that fate meant to happen. I am, in all honesty, grateful to know them. I wish them my best, not that they need it, because they love each other too much to allow any less.”

Minhyun smiles, both amused and a little emotional. Daniel had mentioned the moment they fell in love, and honestly, Minhyun isn’t sure he knows when it was. He thinks he loved Sungwoon a little since the moment they met, and Sungwoon had, a long time ago, claimed the same. But what he does know is the moment he _realised_ he was in love with him, the moment he knew this was the man he wanted to be with for the rest of his life.

 

_“I’m making pasta for dinner, Is that okay?”_

_“I’ve told you you don’t have to make anything.” Minhyun sighs._

_“I know. But I’m always over here, and I want to do something nice for you guys.” Sungwoon answers, already pulling the ingredients from the shopping bags he’d brought over._

_It was true, Sungwoon had been over a lot lately. It wasn’t Minhyun’s decision, but Jinyoung had pretty much adopted him that first day and Sungwoon was more than happy to come keep them both company._

_It hadn’t been Minhyun’s decision, but at some point he’d started not to mind it. It isn’t that the tension has disappeared, he still looks at Sungwoon and finds his mind flashing back to that first night, but now he also looks at him and wonders what this angel is doing on earth. He doesn’t know why Sungwoon wants to hang around. He comes around, and he makes Jinyoung happy, and he doesn’t push Minhyun for anything...and he makes Minhyun happy._

_Minhyun knows by now that Sungwoon makes him happy, but he doesn’t know what to do with that. He still feels like he can’t ask for anything from Sungwoon, like he can’t drag him into his life because he’s so scared of the day he’ll walk out of it._

_Sungwoon doesn’t make terrible pasta. They eat around Minhyun’s tiny excuse for a dining table and make conversation that at some point Minhyun stopped avoiding. Minhyun puts Jinyoung to bed not long after and then it’s just him and Sungwoon in the dim light of the sitting room._

_“Thanks again for making dinner,” Minhyun says, handing another plate to Sungwoon for him to dry._

_“It’s no problem, like I said. I like spending time with you guys.”_

_“Really?” Minhyun can’t help but ask. “You just...like spending time with us? Both of us? And you don’t...want anything else...from me?”_

_Sungwoon freezes for a moment and then puts the dish he’s drying down. He inhales, and maybe it’s the quiet of the room or maybe it’s the way his world feels centred on Sungwoon but it sounds so loud. “Minhyun, look at me.”_

_He does. They turn to each other in the small kitchen and Minhyun is struck by the way his eyes glitter with a power that pulls Minhyun in before Sungwoon turns his eyes away, instead grabbing Minhyun’s two hands in his own and staring at them._

_“You know what I want us to be. I told you that I’ve loved you from the moment that I laid eyes on you, and that hasn’t changed, it’s only grown. But if that’s not what you want, then I accept that, and I won’t push you. I...I think you do want what I want, sometimes, and sometimes I don’t. If there’s one thing I’m actually going to ask for from you, it’s a straight answer. Because I can’t…I just can’t hang on to hope like this if it’s only going to crush me in the end.”_

_“You don’t mean that,” Minhyun says immediately._

_Sungwoon looks at him quizzically, and Minhyun curses his unusually quick answer. He takes a second to get his thoughts in order, pushing away the warm, tingly feeling of Sungwoon’s hands on his own and the pull of his simple presence._

_“You think you want me. But being with me, being in my life, means my son will be part of your life too.”_

_Sungwoon doesn’t look like he understands any better. “I know that, Minhyun. I love spending time with you and Jinyoung. That isn’t a problem for me, at all.”_

_Minhyun laughs, pain and self-depreciation laced into the sound. “That’s what they all say, Sungwoon. Everyone says they don’t care that I have a son, they don’t care that I’m a single father. But after a while they…they say they can’t handle it. I pay too much attention to Jinyoung and not enough to them. They never wanted to be a parent, or at least not for a long time. They come to me wanting a relationship, not a commitment, even if they don’t realise it at first.”_

_Minhyun didn’t realise he was staring at the intertwined hands until one of them disentangles and he feels two of Sungwoon’s fingers under his chin instead. “Look at me, Minhyun.”_

_Minhyun does. He looks at him and he doesn’t see anything._

_(He looks at him and sees everything he’s ever wanted.)_

_“I don’t know how to prove to you that I’m genuine here, that I mean what I’m saying with every fibre of my being, but I do. I love you. I love Jinyoung. That kid is incredible, and so are you, because you raised him to be the way he is. I have a big family. Family means the world to me and I have always wanted to have a family of my own. And, more than that, I want a family with you, I want to be a part of your family. How do I show you that I mean that?”_

_“You just did,” Minhyun breathes, and finally, finally, plants his lips on Sungwoon’s again._

 

The reception starts to wind down, the band plays the last song and one by one the guests start to leave with tipsy congratulations and hugs and waggled eyebrows.

“Hey, husband,” Sungwoon walks up to him on the dance floor when everyone’s gone, with a sly, shining smile. “Are you leaving here with anyone?”

“Yeah, you,” Minhyun answers. “Always you.”

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



End file.
